Fbi Investigated Librarians Who Aided Project

November 07, 1989|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted inquiries earlier this year on librarians and others asked to aid the bureau`s effort to identify Soviet spies, according to internal bureau documents.

The investigations followed the bureau`s effort to determine whether Soviet agents were using libraries to get technical or scientific information. After numerous librarians criticized the surveillance program, the bureau conducted inquiries to determine whether they were being influenced by a Soviet-backed effort to discredit the program.

The documents were made public last weekend by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit Washington research group.

On Monday, the FBI issued a statement denying that it had conducted extensive inquiries into the activities of librarians or others interviewed in the library program. But a spokesman conceded that it had conducted

``minimal`` checks.

Rep. Don Edwards (D., Calif.) called the documents ``dismaying.``

``The FBI never understood that the librarians and other Americans think that libraries are sacred,`` Edwards said. ``It`s very dismaying that the FBI so failed to understand what was the source of this criticism.``